Vietnam Chronicles: The Abrams Tapes, 1968-1972

Vietnam Chronicles: The Abrams Tapes, 1968-1972. Transcribed, selected, edited, annotated, and with an introductory essay by Lewis Sorley. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2004. 917 pages. $50.00. Reviewed by Lieutenant General Richard G. Trefry, USA Ret., Inspector General of the Army, 1978-83, and Military Assistant to the President, 1989-92.

Bob Sorley has spent the last several years writing the story of General Creighton Abrams. His first effort, Thunderbolt: Creighton A brains and the Army of His Times, was a biography of the first order about a great soldier. His second effort was A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam. Both of these books have been widely acclaimed by professional soldiers and others whose lives were, and have been, affected by the American involvement in the Vietnam War.

In the Prologue of Vietnam Chronicles: The Abrams Tapes, 1968-1972, Sorley acknowledges that he wrote Thunderbolt before he became aware of the tapes of the Weekly Intelligence Estimate Update briefings conducted for General Abrams during his tenure as Commander of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV). Having been informed of the existence of the tapes, he used material from them extensively in writing A Better War. However, he was astute enough to realize what a treasure trove the tapes were, and this book is the result. The reader may be assured that the book is not simply an expansion of A Better War.

Pages xx to xxii of the Prologue provide an overview of the wealth of riches to follow. A brief extract from portions of these pages makes the point:

   Tape recordings of the Weekly Intelligence Estimate Updates
   contribute the bulk of the material in this compilation. They are
   from the period June 1968 to June 1972; the years General Abrams was
   in formal command of US forces in Vietnam. Other sessions [covered]
   by the recordings include visits by the Secretary of Defense, the
   Secretary of the Army, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
   the Commander in Chief Pacific, and such others as British
   counterinsurgency specialist Sir Robert Thompson. All formed what I
   have termed the "Abrams Special Collection." ...

   There are 455 tapes in the collections ... [including] more than
   2000 hours of briefings and discussions. These materials ... were
   sequestered and their existence and location were classified top
   secret....

   With help from BG Harold W. Nelson, then Chief of Military History,
   and the approval of the Army Chief of Staff, General Gordon R.
   Sullivan, I was granted access to the tapes for record purposes....

   There are a number of engrossing stories that run through the tapes
   and the years they reflect. These include the changes of strategy
   and tactics for conduct of the war, development of South Vietnam's
   Armed Forces, the pacification program and neutralization of the
   enemy infrastructure among the rural populace, progressive
   withdrawal of American Forces, intelligence break-throughs in
   monitoring infiltration down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, interdiction of
   traffic on that trail, combat excursions into Cambodia and Laos,
   major battles culminating in the 1972 Eastern Offensive, land
   reform, enemy adaptation to changes in their battlefield fortunes,
   maturation of South Vietnam leadership, resumption of the air
   campaign against North Vietnam, political-military relations in
   Washington as they spilled over into American leaders in Saigon,
   increasingly difficult budget stricture, the impact of negotiations
   in Paris on conduct of the war and, of course, the interplay of the
   colorful and sometimes volatile personalities among both American
   and Vietnamese involved in conduct of the war.

Anyone reading the above quotations will be struck by the parallelism in many instances with our present adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. Already pressures are mounting for early withdrawal from Iraq. Read carefully this treatise, because the lessons are profound.

Bob Sorley has provided a significant service to the United States Army and the Departments of Defense and State by editing this collection. Here is an extraordinary opportunity to have an insider's view at the Weekly Intelligence Estimate Update over a four-year period. The relationship of a combatant commander to the White House, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff is particularly fascinating when the reader understands the experiences of Vietnam were long before the Goldwater-Nichols legislation that formalized the affiliation and interaction between the joint and service staffs. Today we tend to think of relationships with other government agencies as something we have to live with; that certainly was not the case during the Vietnam era. This book provides a course in "how to" on nearly every page for the potential senior commander as well as every staff director and subordinate leader who will deal on a regular basis with all the extremely complex requirements of senior command and staff positions.

One of the startling things to this reviewer is the amount and accuracy of intelligence that was available at General Abrams' level. And not just that it was available, but how he used it. As one reads the book, there are many times when a briefing officer would cite activity in one of the many military regions Vietnam was divided into. General Abrams without fail would ask, "Yes, but what does it mean?" There were very few times when there was no reply to that question. The performance of General Potts, the J2 for MACV, and his people epitomize what the level of military intelligence should be.

This is not an easy book to read. First of all, the reader will need a book rest, as the book is 917 pages and will weigh heavily on your arms. But there are lessons to be learned on virtually every page. We constantly talk about the "warrior ethos." This book defines the professional military ethic that incorporates that spirit as exemplified by a great commander, leader, and statesman.

Many of those who were present at the weekly updates are still alive. What an experience it would be to attend a session with those still living to review the updates either individually or collectively. The problem may be that too few among us will bother to read this living history while we have the opportunity. It always seems that the rush of events is overwhelming and impairing our ability to learn and understand.

Every year a select few books are published that should not only be must reading, but should also be added to one's personal library. With this work, Bob Sorley and Texas Tech University have produced one of those books, and we will be forever in their debt for having done so. For those of us who were fortunate enough to have worked for and with General Abrams at various times over our careers, this book will remind us how lucky we were to be so privileged. For those who may only wish they'd had the opportunity, this book will tell them of the adventures they missed.

COPYRIGHT 2005 U.S. Army War College
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group